Saturday, 19 October 2013

Oz Urfa, Cardiff Mesopotamian restaurant review

It was only this year
I discovered that Washington D.C. isn’t in Washington State. Surely, I
ignorantly believed, it’s only logical they’re in the same place.

Also, when it comes to the locations of British counties, I’m pretty clueless too. This is evidenced by my
embarrassingly low high score on County Count-up.

So, you can imagine, when I heard City Road’s latest addition was Oz Urfa, a Mesopotamian
restaurant, my first response was: Mesopotamia?

A quick Wikipedia search later, I was enlightened and back in familiar City Road territory.
Kebabs.

Well, mostly kebabs. Oz
Urfa also has a large selection of mezze for starters and some
interesting casseroles and grilled fish dishes for mains.

On the Friday evening
we visited, Oz Urfa was rammed. I’m guessing this is in part due to its high ranking on Tripadvisor, but also because there are only six tables. Its diddy
size along with the bustling open plan kitchen and warm service all contribute
to a cosy, homely feel.

Whilst we ordered soft
drinks to go with our meal, we became increasingly envious of the tables next
to us making good use of Oz Urfa’s BYOB policy.

Starters were
excellent. A complimentary basket
of bread was up there with the best I’ve eaten on City Road – warm, soft and
plentiful.

The standouts of our very
good mixed meze (£4) were a light hummus, a zingy mint yoghurt dip, and a spicy,
red-coloured dish made with peppers, aubergines and sun-dried tomatoes.

A wonderfully fresh,
salad of tomato, cucumber, lettuce and pomegranate seeds, was dressed with
sweet pomegranate juice and olive oil.

Lahmacun (£2), a
Turkish pizza, was well proportioned, flavoured and priced; the thin, crisp
base was topped with finely ground, spiced lamb.

A mound of sticky, buttery, noodle flecked rice and a chargrilled green pepper and tomatoes were both excellent additions to the place.

Mrs G’s main was even
more renegade. Despite ordering Ali Nazik (£10), a dish of smoky aubergine
topped with chicken shish, she ended up with a casserole, albeit a very good
casserole.

The bubbling stew
comprised of tender chicken, sweet tomatoes and soft onions in a peppery,
garlicky, buttery sauce. When we pointed out the error to the helpful waiter, a
plate of rather good aubergine béchamel was delivered. Apparently, the two would
combine to make Mrs G’s original order; I’m not convinced.

Going someway to make
up for the main course mess-up was a superb complimentary plate of warm, crisp
baklava oozing with syrup and nuts.

I wish I could praise
our meal at Oz Urfa without fault. However, the middle of
the meal was just a bit too skew-whiff. In spite of this, I’d happily recommend a visit – it would be worth the trip even for the bread and baklava alone.

4 comments:

You introduced me to Purple Poppadom, so I respect your opinion and have since followed your blog. However mate, this place is horrible.

I have worked in the trade for a long time and have eaten at thousands of restaurants around the world of all different levels, and this isn't even close to what is written on Trip Adviser. It is quite clear they buy their reviews. In fact the review above this post is the same person because it is cut and paste from Trip Adviser!!

The Bread was probably the best part of the meal and that what wasn't even that amazing..

We ordered the same you did actually. The meat sounded better then yours, but again a year later, No Lamb Chops... haha

We had a similar experience to you 6 months ago. We went there based on the trip adviser reviews which are clearly made up. It was very average. The staff very friendly but definitely not one of the top restaurants in Cardiff.

About Gourmet Gorro

My name is Ed Gilbert. I'm an indiscriminate glutton who enjoys a late night doner as much as a bit of posh. I like to think I can occasionally share a valid opinion about food when my judgement hasn't been clouded by the meat red mist. I'm a Cardiff based Geordie who's spent time living in Newcastle, London, Chester and Cambridge. I mostly write reviews of restaurants in Cardiff, South Wales.

I use a Lumix LX5 camera. All photos are my own unless otherwise stated.